No. 1 South Carolina uses late rally to top No. 9 LSU

Bree Hall hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:14 left for No. 1 South Carolina, which overcame an 11-point second-quarter deficit to beat ninth-ranked and defending national champion Louisiana State 76-70 on Thursday.

Chloe Kitts scored 14 points and Raven Johnson 13 to lead the visiting Gamecocks (18-0, 6-0 SEC), who beat the Tigers (18-3, 5-2) for the 15th straight time and halted LSU’S 29-game home win streak.

Aneesah Morrow had 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Tigers, who led 24-18 after one quarter and 41-36 at halftime.

Angel Reese had 15 points and eight rebounds for LSU before fouling out with 4:02 left and the Tigers up 67-65.

Johnson hit two free throws to tie it, and LSU made only one field goal the rest of the way — Hailey Van Lith’s 3-pointer that tied the score at 70 with 1:42 to go.

Van Lith and Mikaylah Williams each scored 12 points for the Tigers. Kamilla Cardoso had 11 points and eight rebounds for South Carolina, and Hall scored eight of her 10 in the final seven minutes.

The Gamecocks are 5-0 against ranked opponents this season and face only one more team in their final 11 regular-season games that’s currently ranked — No. 8 Connecticut, which visits on Feb. 11.

Coach Kim Mulkey fell to 1-4 against South Carolina — 0-3 in three seasons with LSU and 1-1 in 21 seasons with Baylor.

■ No. 7 North Carolina State 71, Clemson 49: At Clemson, S.C., Madison Hayes had 24 points and nine rebounds for the Wolfpack (17-2, 5-2 ACC), who didn’t trail in their 15th straight win over the Tigers (8-12, 1-7). Clemson was outrebounded 43-30 in its seventh loss in a row.